Lerner/Lambert v Ellis/O'Leary

[rob_bridge]

I think Lerner has been unlucky, Naïve and sometimes incompetent. His appointment record is awful and I include Faulkner and every Manager since MON.

With our worst Home record ever the bloke is absolutely nowhere to be seen, his absence and silence is damning.

He should be at VP BH sorting this mess out and that includes getting rid of Lambert because there is nothing to be gained by keeping him. But again unfortunately when leadership is required it is not there. It is perfectly understandable why people are turning their attention towards him. I would love him to succeed but I don't think he has the necessary skills support or ambition to achieve anything with Villa. It looks like he has given up.

I think too many poor appointments for him to be considered unlucky.

As for Bodymoor Heath I don't think I want him anywhere near there

[Walmley_Villa]

ERM... didnt want to start a new thread in case it's rubbish but has anyone else heard the rumour that a takeover is in progress?

No - go on...?

[PaulWinch again]

I think I am totally pro-Lerner because I consider his faults to have arisen from being badly advised or not advised at all.   I consider him to be entirely well meaning as far as Villa are concerned.  The worst thing I can bring myself to blame him for is naivety and that compared with some of the nest of vipers who now own football clubs is nothing.  For balance I admit I am anti pretty much everybody else.

I agree.

[Chris Smith]

Still all we get is anti- Ellis. What is pro-Lerner and pro-Lambert? That is more important because it is what we are left with.

Would you indulge with me with something I find at odds?

How come you were so staunchly pro-McLeish until the bitter end, but turned very quickly on Lambert?

I am not saying either opinion is wrong, just wondering at the difference.

Could you enlighten me how quickly I turned on Lambert please?

I think you were one of the first detractors of him last season. I am just curious as to why you defended McLeish to the hilt, but didn't afford Lambert the same leeway.

I usually side with the underdog in the first instance. As the shit gets heaped on them more and more, it makes me side with them even more. In this case, Lambert was not the underdog and I rumbled him early on. A similar question could be asked why people stand by Lambert when there is no justifiable reason.
Seconds away....

I don't really see anyone siding with Lambert as such. There are a few who want to give him until the end of the season and some who reckon he should be given till Christmas, both of which are fair enough.

Trouble with Christmas is, who would be around apart from sacked managers? Close season you have more chance of bending the ear of some still in a job.

You're right.

It's a tough call for me. I want him to succeed, but I've got to admit this season has made it hard to believe he will. And I think come the summer we, as a club will be in a better position to rebuild than we were two years before.

So maybe it would be wise to say thanks for all the hard work, but we're going to use someone else for the next phase.

My problem with that is we end up withunwanted players who don't fit in with the new bloke's ideas and in another 12 months time we are having similar threads on here just with a different name in the heading.

I haven't seen one convincing argument against allowing him the chance to see what happens with a couple more signings and a fully fit squad. I don't buy the availability in December argument, such is the churn with managers there are always people looking for jobs and if we are such a draw why is it any different mid season?

[Ads]

Still all we get is anti- Ellis. What is pro-Lerner and pro-Lambert? That is more important because it is what we are left with.

Would you indulge with me with something I find at odds?

How come you were so staunchly pro-McLeish until the bitter end, but turned very quickly on Lambert?

I am not saying either opinion is wrong, just wondering at the difference.

Could you enlighten me how quickly I turned on Lambert please?

I think you were one of the first detractors of him last season. I am just curious as to why you defended McLeish to the hilt, but didn't afford Lambert the same leeway.

I usually side with the underdog in the first instance. As the shit gets heaped on them more and more, it makes me side with them even more. In this case, Lambert was not the underdog and I rumbled him early on. A similar question could be asked why people stand by Lambert when there is no justifiable reason.
Seconds away....

I thought as much.

I got the impression that you liked McLeish and may have met him a few times living Dorridge way. I assumed that Lambert was afforded less time by you as McLeish took stick at Norwich  and Lambert's name was chanted as he was a popular choice. Your prerogative of course.

You do know that if you were in your 20's you'd have thick rimmed glasses, tight fitting jeans and wear 80's woolly jumpers in an ironic fashion? You big hipster.

Which leads me to a joke for the class, ahem;

How do you drown an hipster?


In the mainstream.

[Clampy]

For me it's get to the end of the season and see where we are.

[Ads]

ERM... didnt want to start a new thread in case it's rubbish but has anyone else heard the rumour that a takeover is in progress?

Its the Sultan of Brunei I have heard. Apparently he got lost on Sherlock Street looking for the Sty and wound up at B6 instead.

[villajk]

Ads wrote:

'You do know that if you were in your 20's you'd have thick rimmed glasses, tight fitting jeans and wear 80's woolly jumpers in an ironic fashion? You big hipster. '

That's him in his 50's.

[rob_bridge]

Chris - I would be surprised if we are not having similar threads with the same or different name(s) this time next season and possibly the season after next.

If Lambert got sacked today, in 6 weeks time or 6 months time I honestly don't think it will make the blindest bit of difference to our league position or rather the trajectory of the first team. The malaise within the club is deeper than that and maybe Lambert is just the most visible and significant symptom.

[Irish villain]

Chris - I would be surprised if we are not having similar threads with the same or different name(s) this time next season and possibly the season after next.

If Lambert got sacked today, in 6 weeks time or 6 months time I honestly don't think it will make the blindest bit of difference to our league position or rather the trajectory of the first team. The malaise within the club is deeper than that and maybe Lambert is just the most visible and significant symptom.

That malaise has been there since 2010.

[Ads]

It's not about things running deep at all. The position is very simple.

The decline happened when the quality of the squad began to decrease. You cannot lose the likes of Barry, Milner, Young and Petrov from a midfield, not replace them and then wonder why you're not doing so well.

Everybody is aware of the financially situation, but the fact remains that the midfield is poor and has been since our best players were pinched. Until we find new quality to supplement Delph, we will struggle.

The indication from the club is that the financial situation has normalised, so we should be in a position to direct the annual budget at 2-3 quality midfielders. That has to be the priority for whoever is in charge come August.

[levico]

ERM... didnt want to start a new thread in case it's rubbish but has anyone else heard the rumour that a takeover is in progress?

No - go on...?

I know no more than that. Another fansite are quoting 'reliable' multiple sources that a takeover is in progress. Probably a total load of tosh.


But just in case it isn't, you heard from me first.

[robbo1874]

Under Lerner/Lambert we've got no chance of getting close to top 6. O Leary finished his first season 6th (joint 5th) with 56 points. I don't think under the current budgetary restraints we'd ever see Lambert getting anywhere close to a points tally like that (even if he had the money O Neill had to spend, he'd struggle to achieve that) and these days you need comfortably over 60 to finish top 6 too. It's unlikely this season that Lambert will even match O Leary's worst haul of 42 points.

Even comfortably mid-table seems beyond us at the moment.

im guessing here, but relative to income, o'leary probably had more to spend than lambert has. You'd expect him to do better. He's still a pig faced ****** though, so yes we are better off now.

The problem is, even though it was relatively recent times in our history, the playing field has changed so much in such a short space of time, we're comparing apples and oranges.

[not3bad]

ERM... didnt want to start a new thread in case it's rubbish but has anyone else heard the rumour that a takeover is in progress?

No - go on...?

This is the second time I've seen this mentioned. The first mention of it was by the clowns who thought it would be funny to post up the Paul Lambert sacking as a "if carlsberg did updates" joke.

[rob_bridge]

It's not about things running deep at all. The position is very simple.

The decline happened when the quality of the squad began to decrease. You cannot lose the likes of Barry, Milner, Young and Petrov from a midfield, not replace them and then wonder why you're not doing so well.

Everybody is aware of the financially situation, but the fact remains that the midfield is poor and has been since our best players were pinched. Until we find new quality to supplement Delph, we will struggle.

The indication from the club is that the financial situation has normalised, so we should be in a position to direct the annual budget at 2-3 quality midfielders. That has to be the priority for whoever is in charge come August.

I severely doubt that playing wise that is our only problem. We have currently 4 nailed on players of Premiership quality, 2 possibles (Okore and the Big K). The rest are maybes and couldbes and some are deinitely are not - the latter includes the left backs who belong to us and the two 'young' centre backs.